Description
The origin of White Burley tobacco was credited to a Mr. Webb in
***4, who grew it near Higginsport, Ohio, from seed from Bracken
County, Kentucky. He noticed it yielded a different type of light
leaf shaded from white to yellow, and cured differently. By ***6,
he harvested *0,**0 pounds of Burley tobacco and sold it in ***7 at
the St. Louis Fair for $*8 per hundred pounds. By ***3, the
principal market for this tobacco was Cincinnati, but it was grown
throughout central Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. In ***0 Kentucky
produced *6 percent of the total national tobacco production, and
was first in the country, with nearly twice as much tobacco
produced as by Virginia, then the second-place state.
Burley tobacco is a light air-cured tobacco used primarily for
cigarette production. In the United States, it is produced in an
eight-state belt with approximately *0 percent produced in
Kentucky. Tennessee produces approximately *0 percent, with smaller
amounts produced in Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Ohio,
Virginia and West Virginia. Burley tobacco is produced in many
other countries, with major production in Brazil, Malawi and
Argentina. In the U.S., burley tobacco plants are started from
pelletized seeds placed in polystyrene trays floated on a bed of
fertilized water in March or April.
